How Technology Can Help the Job Hunt
By Mary Wilson
Are you currently out of work or thinking about making a career move? Technology can assist people with disabilities when they are on the job hunt as well as after they land the job. Whether you have physical disabilities, hearing or vision impairment, or any number of other disabilities, a little boost from technology can be just what you need to launch your career or take a current role to the next level.
How technology can help you with the job hunt
Looking for a job isn’t easy, but fortunately, you have many places to hunt. You can tap into your personal and professional networks, ask friends and former co-workers, and associates for leads. You can also search through online advertisements to find work, or you can use a job placement service to help you connect with potential employers.
Another place to look is abilityJOBS – one of several career boards for job seekers with disabilities. You can post your resume on the website, search through thousands of current job opportunities, and set up job alerts to avoid missing opportunities. They also offer live online career fairs where you can meet with potential employers and chat through video, text, or ASL.
While you are on your job hunt, it’s vital to have a reliable, updated smartphone and enough data to see you through interviews, calls and so on. Medium points out newer phones have a number of accessibility features to help you along, such as text-to-speech and voice assistance.
Working remotely is an option
Many people are embracing the idea of working from home. For those with disabilities, working remotely from home may make sense because the environment is familiar and accessible. Business Insider indicates that a wide variety of jobs can be done from home, such as online data entry. Plus, if you want to use your skills as a freelancer, turning to freelancing websites like Upwork make it easy to connect with several clients who are looking for top data entry specialists to help them with their businesses.
Different types of assistive technology
Assistive technology can help those with disabilities do their jobs more effectively whether in the office or at home. These can include raised desks, special keyboards, speech synthesizers, screen readers, speech-recognition software, and many other apps, programs and technologies.
For example, TextHelp Read & Write Gold is a digital text-to-speech reading tool that helps people with dyslexia, low vision, or other reading difficulties. It works on desktops and laptops, and TextHelp also offers apps for use with smartphones and tablets. This is a great tool for searching online for employment as well as to use once you are hired.
Speaking of tablets, iPads and other tablets offer accessibility features that can be used in the workplace including voiceover and wireless Braille displays for the vision impaired, as well as captioning and other functions for the hearing impaired.
When creating your resume, applying for work online, and working on the job, you can use many of the built-in accessibility tools provided by Microsoft to make life a little easier. These tools can benefit those with autism, cognitive differences, dyslexia, hearing impairments, vision impairments and other special needs.
When you are looking for a job and when you are in the workplace, the latest technology can help you perform more effectively and productively. Do online research to find out what types of assistance is available to you and will help your unique circumstances. Then once you land that dream job, talk to your employer about implementing the tools you need to be the best you can be at work.